I think people were genuinely 'enthused' in the other City centre thread. There is sadly through years of neglect very little to drag people into the City centre, it looks scruffy and uninviting, with a significant number of units empty and boarded up. We have the Deep, which I think was the most successful millenium project, which still has pulling power across the UK. Beyond the Deep, Marina, Museums and Old Town (most of which are marketed poorly, or not at all) then there is nothing to encourage day trippers and visitors to spend in the city, to help create a buoyant local economy. We have the ferries here, the gateway to Europe, yet there's not enough done to encourage that potential spend to stay within East Yorks. Boutique Hotel on the Marina, nice non chain restaurants offering variety to the chain ****e on every high street. As a council for pushing our city forward, they are ****ing useless, and have been always. These dumb ****s think the fair money stays in the city! My arse 95% of it leaves when the travellers **** off to their next destination. The only beneficiary being Bob Carvers at a guess.
I was surprised the Mail Buildings on Jameson Street were allowed to be demolished.. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image It's really bland down there now and the real irony is, that the only bit they didn't demolish was the ****ty 60's bit on the end where Fletchers was.
To lose those buildings for them to be replaced with a drab What everybody wants building is a real eyeopener as to what happened in our city centres AFTER the war . Never since has a building been built using substantial , solid , grand seeming pointless arcitecture .I hate "the Grand building " on Jameson St . Even The Large Warehouses demolished on Mytongate (to make way for Castle St extension) could have been saved - afterall the buildings footprint is still just a sad grassy knoll :/ Prospect Centre was another travesty after they demolished the partially bombed Infirmary . We also needlessly lost the big houses on Anlaby Rd for what ? a slightly larger car park !!
One way to revive the old town is to reintroduce a ferry terminal at the Pier . There isnt a lot locally to travel to i admit , but any forward thinking County Council partnership could consider creating a folly / island in a safe place on the humber for people to explore,sightseeing , bodwatching etc .
Trinity House own the whole Southern side I think. The council said they'd held talks with the owners and the bosses of the companies who are in them. They said most are interested in co-operating, though I think I remember them saying one or two of the chains were being a bit 'funny' about the plans, saying they'll have to be careful not to piss them off too.
The most disgraceful thing, is that there was nothing wrong with the size or layout of the existing buildings, it was just more cost effective to build some cheap ****e, then it was to do up what was there already. The burgundy shop front in that first picture was my Dad's shop, he got kicked out for the redevelopment and they told him it was because the roof was too expensive to repair. And the biggest irony of all, is that if you go on the Hull City Council website, it lists Jameson Street as one if it's 26 Conservation Areas, due to it's historic architecture. ****ing morons.
I never get why firms who have a massive stock of properties to LET don't smarten them up before trying to LET them out.
The problem with Savile Street is that it's not a main thoroughfare to anything. The council might be introducing a new outdoor market, which would create a reason to walk down Whitefriargate, meaning the shops would stand a better chance of staying open. As for the marina, there are a few things down there now - The Wilson, Tasty, a hairdressers, Minerva, Fred Marketing and a new restaurant is opening up in the old building next door to the old Tropical Knights building... and that's before mentioning Humber St.
That's the Eastern Side, which, other than Natwest and Costa Coffee is almost empty. I think it should be knocked down and offices created, as I read recently that Hull City Centre has a lack of quality office space available. The western side of King Edward St with Barclays as a focal point looks a lot better and has more detail above the shops. Could have been a lot worse, we could've got what Coventry got. At least ours replicates and is a modern take on an old style. Not bad either considering we got no government funding to rebuild.
The council told me there are quite a few original shop fronts hidden behind the slapped on tacky fronts.
They're wrong, they demolished everything before they started building the new buildings, I watched my old man's place get completely trashed.
According to this article, they own one half of Whitefrigate and I would expect that to be the whole of the south side that is adjacent to the school. http://www.thisishullandeastriding....itefriargate/story-13674522-detail/story.html
The old Fields' cafe on the corner of Savile Street and the entry to Queens gardens (next to what was Wilson's Corner House); Kardomah cafe on Whitefriargate, next-door to Lyons' coffee house..... Carmichaels' on George Street, with the Dorchester cinema and the Criterion cinema 'bracketing' the store. It was kind of Hull's posh shop. FOOK - the mind just starts to loop back when you think what Hull's pissy councils, over the years, have thrown away! Good post Dazzar.
